Year: 2010
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Donna Wilson, when interviewed, was a professor in the University of Alberta Faculty of Nursing who also continued to work part-time as a nurse at the University of Alberta Hospital. A tireless and effective advocate for preserving the public healthcare system, she and seven others formed Ethics and the Crisis in Health Care Organization (ECHO), the province’s first group to oppose the Ralph Klein cuts that closed major hospitals. In 1995, Wilson helped revive the Edmonton branch of Friends of Medicare and later chaired its board. Born on a farm near Ponoka, she graduated in 1976 from the diploma program in Nursing at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. Wilson completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the U of A (1981) and Master’s of Nursing at the University of Texas (1985). While studying in the U.S. she became convinced that Canada had the better healthcare system after seeing the contrast in care between a Texas county hospital and a private hospital. That experience motivated her to raise awareness about threats to Canada’s healthcare system, particularly private for-profit healthcare. She started teaching at the U of A in 1986 and in 1993 completed a Ph.D. in Educational Administration.
Keywords: Ethics and the Crisis in Health Care Organization; Gimbel Foundation Act; Healthcare workers; Mazankowski Commission; Privatization; Regional Health Authority Act; Romanow Commission; University of Alberta; University of Alberta Hospital.
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See also: Friends of Medicare; United Nurses of Alberta; Women and Work in Alberta